When it comes to the Dragon Age series, choices are everything. Player agency, and the accumulation of their decisions, can make or break all aspects of a game. Friendships, rivalries, alliances, romances, political machinations, and story progression depend on the player’s ideology, intentions, and desired outcomes -what world-state they intend to build. Dragon Age the Veilguard is set to add even more to the story than ever before -but with a huge caveat that has fans reeling.
Player Choice
Fundamental, and very much looked forward to with Dragon Age the Veilguard, immersion has become the cornerstone of the fanbase’s love for Dragon Age. Every game, no matter the time skip or narrative shift, has always been a continuation of the game before. Choices the player makes in every game have some effect on the next game’s narrative and characters – no matter how small or insignificant it may seem. The continuation of that decision may only come in the form of a random codex entry, but the confirmation is nearly always there.
Controversy
The latest controversy to hit Dragon Age the Veilguard has come in the form of both concern and backlash over the executive decision by the developers to incorporate only a small portion of the decisions from Dragon Age Inquisition’s Trespasser DLC. Rather than incorporating many of the major decisions in the base game, the team at Bioware has slimmed down the list of effective choices for the new game. Namely: who the Inquisitor romances, whether or not the player chose to disband the Inquisition, and whether the player swore to stop or save Solas from himself.
Fan Reaction
While, on the surface, this decision seems reasonable; given the astronomical number of choices throughout the series, that Bioware could have incorporated; many fans found the minuscule adherence to previous decisions both frustrating and disappointing. Many argued that certain key decisions from the main narrative of the base game, such as who drank from the Well of Sorrows and whether or not Morrigan had the Old God’s Soul, would be fundamentally important to the continuation of both the Inquisitor and Morrigan’s storylines. With the confirmation of their inclusion in the new narrative, fans cannot help but wonder why many of the decisions made regarding them will not carry over -given their significance regarding the Elven gods and Solas.
Game Dev’s Response
The developers at Bioware, however, tried their best to explain why they ultimately decided to slim down the core influences from previous games: citing that there was just too much material to work with after three entire games and that, since the players would be traveling to an entirely new location on the map (Northern Thedas,) the influences of the south would be far-less felt overall:
“What’s not lost on us is that it’s been 10 years since existing players have played. They might not remember [what they did in previous games.] They might need that refresher, and we don’t want new players to feel like they’re missing out on those decisions. So, in the character creator, I like to call it ‘last time on Dragon Age,’ but you can go into your past adventures and it, actually through tarot cards, tells you what the context was and what decision you want to make.” -Corrine Busche (source: IGN)
Even with the controversy surrounding Dragon Age the Veilguard’s world state, fans have still not been completely deterred from picking up the game when it releases on October 31. According to Bioware, sales and preorders of the game have remained as consistent as they expected -with the newest iteration of the Dragon Age series already going Gold and receiving quite a bit of praise from well-known influencers in the online gaming space. Dragon Age the Veilguard is rated M, for mature and is available on Steam, the EA App, online, and at local retailers.
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